Explain how wing shape can contribute to lift during flight.?

Answer 1

Your teacher probably wants you to say that the air goes faster over the top of the wing creating a pressure difference that causes lift. You r teacher and probably your text book are totally WRONG. Here's how it really works .....

http://home.comcast.net/~clipper-108/lift.htm

Answer 2

Look at any wing designed for sub-sonic flight - it's flat on the bottom, or slightly concave, and rounder on the top.

As a plane moves through the air, the air moving around the wing has to move *faster* on top than it does on the bottom. Since air moving relative to a surface has less pressure, it creates a pressure difference on the wing - there's more on the bottom than on the top. This is, in fact, the 'lift' of the wing. It's what lofted the Wright Brothers' first plane, and a 747 today.

Answer 3

A wing on a small aircraft has a cross section that is curved on the top and virtually flat on the bottom.
As the wing accelerates the air on the top moves faster than the bottom creating a low pressure area causing the wing to be pulled upward.
In later high performance aircraft and on jets the top and bottom are closer to being flat.
This lets the plane fly but the take off speed and stall speed are much higher but are also more efficient.

Answer 4

Generally the tactic is to make the wing (relatively) flat on the bottom and (relatively) curved on the top. This causes the air passing above the wing to move quickly with respect to the air below the wing. By the Bernoulli principle pressure and velocity of fluids are inversely related, so high velocity above and low velocity below means low pressure above and high pressure below... aka lift :) of course, this is a gross oversimplification of the science behind it all.

Answer 5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airfoil

a nice little picture and everything